Meet the Mountain Boys

They're called the "Mountain Boys", and they're bounding
down a snowpacked pathway in the Alpine Village: Stewart, nine, in his
shirt sleeves, Andy, six, ever-polite as he offers to carry a visitor's
camera bag, and Damien, four, bringing up the rear with his snow-leaping
talents and urgent sense of curiosity.

Their mother, Sue Walker, follows gracefully in a long, gray skirt
and black turtleneck, while father Al Walker greets everyone with hugs
and grins-back from a day at his business in town, Walker Technologies
Ltd. The Walker boys have grown up on the mountain, with Strathcona
Park as their backyard, Mount Washington Alpine Resort as their playground
and mother Sue as their social, emotional and intellectual grounding.

The Walkers have been visiting Mount Washington since 1992, when Al
and Sue came every other weekend from Victoria to ski. When Sue was
pregnant with Stewart she told Al she didn't want to be dragging a high
chair and other baby-related gear to rented chalets, so they bought
a place.The tri-level chalet was built by Mount Washington founder Henry
Norie and has served the family well, says Sue (there are altogether
six children in the family: Natalie, 22 and Tyler, 18, both live on
their own now, while Harrison, 16, is living with the family this year
and commuting every day to G.P. Vanier Secondary School in Courtenay).

Steller's Jays crowd a loaded bird feeder outside the Walkers' dining
room window as Damien brings treasures to the large, solid wood table
to show a visitor. This time a Rescue Hero, the next a pair of crystals
- an amethyst and a quartz, he says proudly. The boys gladly bound downstairs
to show off their "school room" - the long wooden counter
where their computer terminals are set up, flanked with an organized
bookshelf in the rear and Stewart's sleeping area behind a pair of woolen
blankets to one side (It's a perfect area for a theatre, to fuel the
boys' creativity, says Sue).

In the pantry downstairs Sue has squirreled away enough food to last
the family throughout the winter. She learned to can last year, and
this year learned to make pickles. When she goes grocery shopping she
will spend $2,000 at one time to stock up for winter. "It's like
a 7-11 down here," she says, chuckling. "We make use of all
the space that we can," she adds, looking around the chalet, natural
light flooding the picture windows. "We moved from a five-acre
plot and 3,000-square-foot house to a 50-foot-square circle on a strata
lot, and it's all vertical. We don't have closets. We don't have dressers
for the kids. Things get shoved under the bed in crates," she said.

She's been known to move a wall if it's in her way, and she's always
moving furniture around to find the most efficient living space. All
this organizing takes work, and Sue prefers to use a spreadsheet to
help her. "It's quite challenging," she admits. "Living
up here is interesting. You think you need something so you put it on
your list and a few days go by...all of a sudden you realize you don't
need it anymore, because you made do," she said. "When you
live up here (full time) you can't just run into town, especially with
these guys - it's a big event."

The Mountain Boys are three of a list of Mount Washington children
who are home schooled. They are registered with the North Island Distance
Education School (NIDES) in Courtenay, and Sue teaches them every day.
The flexibility of the children's programs allows them to start early
and end early, meaning they have the entire afternoon to play in their
"backyard": Strathcona Park and Mount Washington Alpine Resort.

The whole family can often be seen snowshoeing or cross-country skiing,
Al said. "Quite often we'll take time off of school and take our
books and art supplies, and sit on a small bridge and have 'art in the
park'," Sue said. The boys held their own Terry Fox Run in October,
running the three-kilometre loop in Paradise Meadows. They raised $42.
The adult Walkers are involved in mountain life in their own way. Al
is chairman of the Mount Washington Community Association. Sue was involved
in Strata 799 until earlier this year. The whole family has season passes
to the Alpine Resort.

The lifestyle of living year-round on the mountain, while challenging,
is rewarding, the Walkers agree. "It's a very happy house,"
says Sue. It's a dream come true, adds Al. "When I was in my teenage
years I visited a ski cabin on Grouse Mountain (in the Lower Mainland).
I decided right then that I wanted to live on a mountain," he said.
"Plus it's a fantastic opportunity for the boys."